Device for feeding down cigar bunches on a conveying belt



M rch 7, 1967 LARSAXEL ASTROM 3,307,742

DEVICE FOR FEEDING DOWN CIGAR BUNCHES ON A CONVEYING BELT Filed Aug. 27, 1965 their size.

United States Patent 3,307,742 DEVICE FOR FEEDING DOWN CIGAR BUNCHES ON A CONVEYING BELT Lars-Axel Astriim, Stockholm, Sweden, assignor to Arenco Aktiebolag, Stockholm, Sweden Filed Aug. 27, 1965, Ser. No. 483,190 Claims priority, application Sweden, Sept. 30, 1964, 11,730/ 64 1 Claim. (Cl. 221-180) The present invention relates to feeding and conveying means for rod-like articles e.g. cigar bunches in machines for making cigars. The device comprises a conveyor on which the bunches are conveyed from a bunch store, preferably in their longitudinal direction. The device also includes a turnable body provided with an at least partly cylindrical surface in contact with the inside of the store, and a through way duct debouching with one of its ends in the store.

In order to make a cigar machine work continuously and at a high speed the cigar bunches have to be fed ahead in a regular and speedy succession. The bunches may have various dimensions and are light in relation to This makes it harder to feed cigar bunches than to feed pins, rods etc. of a heavier and more solid material. Therefore a special regard has to be taken of the design of details in the device which could obstruct thefeeding of the bunches.

That the problem of feeding bunches has previously been considered is evident from the Swedish Patent No. 178,280 in which a device is described which has a feeding body in the bottom of a bunch store. The feeding body performs a torsional motion to and fro around a centre shaft and every time it is in the'middle position a bunch is fed from a throughway duct in the body. As the feeding body is to be rotated from the middle position to one of the end positions and to the middle position again between every fed bunch the device will work comparatively slowly. The bottom bunch in the duct is subjected to unnecessary abrasion because it slides on stationary surfaces. In addition, the device is complicated and expensive to produce owing to its multiplicity of details.

The present invention is an improvement of this known device. As in the known device, a feeding body is provided, but it has a difierent design and by virtue of this, the aforementioned disadvantages of the known device are eliminated.

According to the invention the turnable body is provided with a radially through way duct and journalled with the centre of motion in the outlet opening of the duct.

Because the bunches can fall freely through the duct, the rate of feed of the device is primarily limited by the rate of the conveyor carrying the bunches further. By virtue of its simple construction, the device is well suited to feeding such a light and irregular material as cigar bunches.

Specific embodiments of the invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawing in which:

FIGURE 1 shows a vertical projection of an embodiment of a device in accordance with the invention.

FIGURE 2 shows a cross section of the same device and,

FIGURE 3 shows a second embodiment of the device.

Referring to the device shown in FIGURES 1 and 2:

As shown in the drawing the device is mounted on a frame 1, formed by assembled plates 2, 3. An endless belt 4 is tensioned between a driving-pulley 5, a runner 6 and an adjustable roller 7 for adjusting the tension of 3,307,742 Patented Mar. 7, 1967 the belt. These rollers are carried by shafts 8, 9 and 10, respectively, which are secured to the frame. The pulley 5 is fixed to the shaft 8, which is journalled in the frame and driven by a motor (not shown), and the rollers 6 and 7 are journalled on their respective shafts. Thus, the motor drives the belt and its direction of motion is shown by the arrows in FIGURE 1. At that end of the belt where the pulley 5 is situated there is provided a guiding member 11 shaped to a gutter and so arranged that the open side of the gutter faces the upper surface of the belt. The guiding member is firmly mounted on the frame plate 3 and supports at one of its ends facing the belt a bearing 12 for a pivot 13 protruding from one of the ends of a turnable body 14. The turnable body is journalled at its other end within a bearing 15 mounted on a bearing bracket 16 which is fixed to the frame. The shaft 17 in this bearing carries at its free end a mitre gear 18 driven from another gear 19 on a shaft 20, which associated with these gears and the shaft 17 transfers power from a motor 21 in the frame to the turnable body 14. The motor, being reversible, effects a rotation to and fro owing to a switch (not shown) driven for example from the shaft of the motor. The rotation is transferred to the turnable body, which then performs a torsional motion to and fro around the shaft 17 and the pivot 13 which are situated on the intersecting line between oblique ribs 22 and 23 of the body.

In FIGURE 2 the turnable body is shown in a middle position between the two end positions of its motion (shown by broken lines in the figure). 'From cylindrical surface of the body to the abovementioned intersecting line a duct 24 passes through the body and subtends a right angle with the belt when the turnable body is in its middle position. The lower opening 25 (FIGURE 2) of the two openings of the duct is always situated directly above the belt, but the upper one 26 accompanies the body in its motion and sweeps over an area in the cylindrical surface corresponding to the are between the utmost parts of the marked end positions of the duct in FIG- URE 2.

The duct extends completely along the axial length of the turnable body being at least as long as the cigar bunches. These will have plenty of room to lie between one end of the turnable body and the other and will be able to fall through the duct with this orientation. The duct is limited, in the forward direction of motion of the belt, by the end part of the body which forms a stopper 27 in front of the bunches in the duct so that they 'will not move axially in the duct. The stopper, which is shaped as a fillet or a strip, covers the forward end of the duct and extends to within a distance equal to the thickness of the bunches of the belt, so that a bunch lying on the belt can pass freely under the stopper when following the motion of the belt. After a bunch has passed the stopper, the next bunch falls down on the belt and is carried away. The interval between the bunches on the belt is determined by the time it takes a bunch to fall .from the moment it slips off the rear of the next ahead bunch, till it lies flatly on the belt.

The bunches pass through the duct under the action of their own weight and of the torsional motion of the duct and the body. Above the body there is 'a bunch magazine 28 whose walls abut on the cylindrical surface of the body somewhere about the level of the two end positions of the duct. Owing to the fact the body always rotates a rotation is transferred to the bunches lying adjacent to the cylindrical surface of the body and this ensures that these bunches alw-ays lie parallelly to each other and to the opening of the duct at the surface. A continuous and speedy flow of bunches to the duct is hereby ensured.

Because the bunches are fed independently of feeding members other than the belt and the stationary stopper 27, interrupting and starting the feeding can be effected simply by respectively stopping and starting the belt. After leaving the belt the bunches are carried by means of two driving rollers 29, 30 driven by a transmission (not shown) from the pulley 5.

Mounting the bunch store above a body or a roller with a through way duct where the bunches get an orientation suitable for conveying on a belt has proved to be advantageous with regard to function as well as to construction. Some parts of described embodiment can, of course, be substituted by similar parts. In FIGURE 3 such a substitution is shown in that the turnable body comprises two angular-bent plates 31, 32 instead of the designing of the body in FIGURE 2.

Also the duct is shown provided with an extension 33 between its lower opening 25 and the belt. This elongation can also be made to subtend a certain angle with the belt.

Other embodiments of the invention may be produced within the scope of the invention as defined by the appended claim.

What is claimed is:

A device for feeding rod-like articles, for example cigar bunches, comprising a magazine, a body which is journalled in bearings below said magazine and has a surface at least partly cylindrical positioned within said magazine and comprises a through way outlet duct extending radially through said body and debouchi-ng with one of its end openings in said magazine, driving means for turning said body to and fro with centre of motion in said bearings situated in alignment with the axis of the cylindrical surface of said body, the other end opening of said duct positioned at said axis and extending between a forward end and a backward end of said body, said forward end provided with a stopper, a conveyor having a transport surface at a predetermined distance below said stopper and moving in the direction from said backward end to said forward end.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,005,589 6/1935 McCoy 221253 X 2,167,049 7/1939 Maurath et al. 221-259 X 2,841,074 7/1958 Schechter 221- X 3,019,575 2/1962 Charley et al 221-205 X FOREIGN PATENTS 1,335,929 7/1963 France.

180,511 8/1962 Sweden.

SAMUEL F. COLEMAN, Primary Examiner. 

